The provincial head of catastrophe administration, Ehsanullah Ehsan, says they can’t ‘predict’ the variety of our bodies trapped below the rubble.
Printed On 2 Sep 2025
Rescuers try to achieve distant areas in Afghanistan’s jap Kunar area after a devastating earthquake killed greater than 1,120 folks and injured over 3,250, based on the Afghan Purple Crescent Society, and flattened villages and buildings.
The loss of life toll is prone to rise. The Purple Crescent additionally stated 8,000 homes had been destroyed.
The provincial head of catastrophe administration, Ehsanullah Ehsan, stated early on Tuesday that efforts can be prolonged to extra of the area’s mountainous areas.
“We can not precisely predict what number of our bodies may nonetheless be trapped below the rubble,” stated Ehsan.
“Our effort is to finish these operations as quickly as attainable and to start distributing support to the affected households,” he famous, including that a few of those that have been injured have been transferred to hospitals within the capital, Kabul, and to the adjoining Nangarhar province.
Simply earlier than midnight on Sunday, a shallow magnitude 6 earthquake struck jap Afghanistan – one of many deadliest the nation has skilled.
The mountainous terrain is making rescue work troublesome, with volunteers unable to achieve remoted areas alongside the Pakistani border, the place largely mud-brick properties have been destroyed.
In accordance with Ehsan, gaining car entry on the slim mountainous roads has been the primary impediment for aid work.
‘Extraordinarily difficult’
In a situational replace, the World Well being Group (WHO) reiterated that the destruction of roads and the distant areas of many villages “severely impede the supply of support”.
“The pre-earthquake fragility of the well being system means native capability is overwhelmed, creating whole dependence on exterior actors,” stated the WHO, including that greater than 12,000 folks had been affected.
Homa Nader, the appearing deputy head of delegation with the Worldwide Federation of Purple Cross and Purple Crescent Societies in Afghanistan, instructed Al Jazeera it has develop into “practically unimaginable” to proceed with the rescue effort as a result of destruction of roads.
“The challenges nonetheless stay. We had Andma, the catastrophe administration directive that got here in yesterday with heavy equipment to filter out among the highway and the rubble to have the ability to assist with entry in order that humanitarian actors just like the Afghan Purple Crescent Society can go and function search and rescue operations, however sadly, it’s extraordinarily difficult,” Nader stated.
She added that whereas they look forward to a full incident report from the organisation, it’s “completely doubtless that these [death toll] numbers would dramatically enhance as a result of we’re not attending to essentially the most distant villages as of but”.
Afghanistan has skilled devastating earthquakes prior to now attributable to its location on the assembly level the place the Indian and Eurasian plates converge.
The deadliest earthquake passed off in October 2023, which killed greater than 2,000 folks in Herat province.
